American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

Separately, UBS Group upgraded American Axle & Manufacturing from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $7.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $7.70.

American Axle & Manufacturing Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of American Axle & Manufacturing stock traded down $0.02 during trading on Thursday, reaching $7.36. The stock had a trading volume of 1,063,275 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,975,614. The company has a market capitalization of $865.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 2.22. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $7.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.49. American Axle & Manufacturing has a 52 week low of $6.29 and a 52 week high of $9.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.55.

American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The auto parts company reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.10. American Axle & Manufacturing had a negative return on equity of 1.78% and a negative net margin of 0.55%. The company had revenue of $1.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.07) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that American Axle & Manufacturing will post 0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of American Axle & Manufacturing

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AXL. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 20.7% in the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 46,317 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $371,000 after buying an additional 7,940 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 95.9% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 61,060 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $474,000 after buying an additional 29,891 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 14.1% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 98,332 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $763,000 after buying an additional 12,124 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. bought a new stake in American Axle & Manufacturing in the first quarter valued at approximately $466,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its stake in American Axle & Manufacturing by 2.0% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 105,521 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $843,000 after buying an additional 2,040 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.41% of the company’s stock.

About American Axle & Manufacturing

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, and manufactures driveline and metal forming technologies that supports electric, hybrid, and internal combustion vehicles. It operates through two segments, Driveline and Metal Forming segments. The Driveline segment offers front and rear axles, driveshafts, differential assemblies, clutch modules, balance shaft systems, disconnecting driveline technology, and electric and hybrid driveline products and systems for light trucks, sport utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, passenger cars, and commercial vehicles.